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FAISALABAD, Feb 3: Residents of Mamukanjan town have threatened to launch a protest campaign if the owners of industrial units were not prevented from discharging chemical effluents in the local drain.
At a meeting presided over by Mamukanjan Action Committee chief Maulana Ziauddin Azad on Monday, they said the government agencies had failed in cementing embankments of the open drain despite the assurances made by them some two years ago.
They pointed out that traders, religious leaders and farmers had launched the protest movement against the agencies concerned as their lands had become barren due to the seepage of polluted water from the open drain.
The people of the area were fetching drinking water from far-flung areas as the subsoil water had become brackish and unfit for human consumption, they said.
SEMINAR: People from various walks of life pledged on Monday to join hands with the government and law-enforcing agencies to maintain law and order.
Speaking to the participants in a ‘Peace Seminar’ held at the Tehsil Municipal Administration’s Iqbal Hall, some religious scholars claimed the government had already taken a number of steps to eradicate sectarianism and control attacks on worship places.
They lauded President Gen Pervez Musharraf’s role in fight against terrorism and crack down on killers of religious scholars. They denied any differences among different religious groups.
Other speakers called for the Iraq issue’s resolution through dialogue instead of force. “The world superpowers should press also India and Israel to settle the Kashmir and Palestine issues through negotiations,” they said.
Representing the government, District Police Chief Zafar Abbas Lak said the Provincial Home Department had already decided to constitute peace committees at police stations to settle minor disputes.
He assured the participants that the department would make all-out efforts to ensure peace in Muharram.
